Discharge means for dust collector ducts



July 10, 1934. 1 1,965,825

DISCHARGE MEANS FOR DUST COLLECTOR DUCTS Filed Oct. 5, 1931 gwvehto v Hervey A. Calvin Patented July 10, 1934 u UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DISCHARGE MEANS FOR DUST COLLECTOR DUCTS Hervey A. Oolvin, Saginaw, Mich.

Application October 5, 1931, Serial No. 567,039

2 Claims. (01. 209-135) This invention relates to dust collector syssources, not shown. The material may be led to tems of the type known in the trade as self-clearthe duct by means of pipes 2 entering its upper ing and semi-clearing mains wherein air, dust part, or by any other means. In its lower part a and larger pieces of refuse material accumulated flight conveyor 3 or any equivalent kind of mate- 5. from woodworking and other machines is drawn rial carrier is made to impel the heavier pieces from the machines through small pipes into a lengthwise the duct. large horizontal tubular duct having a fan to At the end of the duct 1 is a power-driven exexhaust the dust and lighter particles from the haust fan 4 which, in known manner, maintains duct and discharge them toacyclone or separator. the desired degree of vacuum in the pipes 2 to 19 The heavier pieces of material drop to the bottom draw material through them into the duct 1 and of the duct before they reach the fan and are proalso to maintain suificient air agitation in the pelled to a discharge outlet by means of a conduct to keep the dust and finer particles in susveyor within the duct. Usually the discharge pension and cause them to float to the exhaust opening communicates with a closed chamber in fan 4.

15 which is maintained the same degree of vacuum The heavier material brought by the conveyor as in the duct. The duct may be on the pressure 3 drops through a delivery outlet 1a in the botside of the fan instead of theexhaust side if detom of the duct, but instead of falling into a" sired. sealed chamber, as heretofore, it is handled by an A system of the kind referred to is shown in air-sealed rotary valve device 5 which constitutes 20 patent to Caller No. 1,610,358, December 14, 1926. a feature of my invention.

My invention consists in the introduction of a Between the outlet la and the exhaust fan 4 new and improved means for removing the dust I extend the duct 1 and preferably enlargeit so and heavier materials from the duct without emas to form a chamber lb in which the air travels ploying the usual sealed delivery chamber for at somewhat less velocity than it does in the duct the heavier pieces, thus saving valuable space proper. Reduced air speed causes the heavier which would otherwise be occupied by thechamparticles to drop before reaching the fan. The her, and permitting continuous delivery to be coarsest or heaviest material, together with the made toaplace of finaldisposal. smaller particles thus separated from the dust An object of the invention is to provide a novel all drop into a funnel-like throat, the lower end 30 rotary pocketed valve in direct communication of which is closed by a rotary valve 5 mounted to with the delivery opening of the duct instead of turn with a horizontal power driven shaft 6 so as using the usual sealed chamber. Also I provide to present its pockets '7 in regular order at the botmeans to prevent damage, or interruption of the tom of the funnel to receive the material. Valve service, by facilitating the discharge of extremely 5 is enclosed by a throat la, a housing 8 and a dislong material pieces that sometimes enter the charge pipe 9 in such manner as to prevent air valve device. from leaking back into the vacuum duct 1 suf- Another object is to provide means for more ficiently to impair the usefulness of the vacuum. eifectually separating the dust from the heavier Pipe 9 may contain air at atmospheric pressure material before leaving the system and also to or at greater or less pressure as desired.

= provide means for regulating the degree of fine- The air seal is maintained by plates 10 fixed to ness or coarseness attained by such separation. the ends of, say, four radial vanes 11 that extend With the foregoing and certain other objects in lengthwise of the housing 8 and are fixed to the view, which will appear later in the specification, shaft 6, so the vanes and plates rotate with the my invention comprises the devices described and shaft. The vanes 11 are preferably welded along claimed and the equivalents thereof. their edges to the end plates 10 to form an in- 45 In the drawing Fig. l is a side elevation of a tegral unit of exceptional rigidity. The V shaped dust collector system, broken away in part, showpockets '7 maintain the air seal sufficiently tight ing my improvement applied thereto. for practical purposes while carrying the mate- Fig. 2 is an end view. rial around the housing 8 from the throat 10 to 5 Fig. 3 is an enlarged face view of the sealed rodischarge chute 9. Some lighter dust material tating valve device partly broken away. may be entangled with the heavier material that Fig. 4 is a fragmentary detail showing the preis pushed by the conveyor into the throat. Since ferred form of vane structure. it is usually desirable to have the heavier mate- As is clearly shown in the drawing the duct 1 is rials free from dust I provide a vent or aperture supplied with material from machines or other 12 in the throat 1c and a closure, as slide 13, and

slide-adjusting means, as wing nut 13a, to let a greater or less stream of air enter the duct and travel across the path of the material while the material is falling into the pockets '7.

The air admitted through vent 12 may be under atmospheric pressure or else forced in under greater than atmospheric pressure from any source, not shown. This air stream picks up the dust and acts somewhat as a horizontal air bafile that prevents the lighter particles from falling into the throat 1c. The lighter particles are carried by the air stream across the upper end of the.

delivery opening 1a and into the enlarged chamber 1b. Here their velocity is somewhat lessened and the heavier particles drop down into the delivery opening while the lighter dust goes to the discharge fan 4..

Across the upper part of the enlarged chamber lb I provide a fixed baiile plate 14 at the bottom of which is an adjustable hinged plate 14a by which the cross sectional area of the enlarged channel can be varied to suit the kind of material and to attain the air velocity desired. The hinged plate 14a may be set to direct the flow of air downward at that place and thus assists the separating process.

To prevent blocks or long pieces of material from damaging the vanes 11 if caught between them and the housing 8 I provide a novel construction for the vanes 11. Their outer ends 11a are mounted on spring hinges 15 so as to move in one direction only, being kept from moving in the other direction by stops 11b. If a long or oversize piece of material 16 enters the valve andbecomes lodged as shown in Fig. 3,. the hinged end 11a of the vane folds back sufiiciently to permit it to pass the obstruction without damaging the vane or housing. A. sheet metal guard 15a covers the hinge so as to prevent material from getting into or catching on it and clogging it. Preferably the hinged parts 11a are beveled at their ends as shown in Fig. 4 to reduce the chance of their being held open by pieces of material.

While I have shown and described valve 5 as being applied to the end of the duct 1, it may equally well be applied anywhere along the length of a straight self-clearing main, or may be installed anywhere along the length of a continuous loop or so-called circuit main, without departing from my invention as claimed.

A certain amount of the material being handled may be initially of the proper size for use, say, as fuel. Other pieces may be too large, requiring to be put through a disintegrating hog in order to reduce them. It is undesirable to load the hog with the finer material that does not require further reducing. It is also undesirable to create a dust nuisance at the hog and, therefore, dust should not be allowed to pass to the hog. Moreover, the fan is protected against having to handle pieces which are so large that they would damage it.

By the means above described I have attained such protection for the fan and a better control of the separation of the dust from the slightly larger pieces, that is, a final separation of the lighter constituents.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination a collector system including a duct, conveyor means therein, an exhaust fan connected to said duct for removing dust and air therefrom, the bottom of said duct formed with an outlet, said duct presenting an enlarged chamber between the outlet and the fan, adjustable baflie means in said chamber located above the path of heavier material. passing through the chamber and adapted to direct the flow of air downward, a downwardly directed air-sealedthroat communicating with said outlet, and an adjustable aperture in a wall of said throat located adjacent the duct for intake of air in a direction crosswise the throat, said baffle means operable to adjust the velocity of air flow through.

said enlarged chamber.

2. In a collector system including ,a duct having conveyor means therein, an exhaust fan connected to said duct for removing dust and air therefrom, the bottom of said duct "formed with an outlet, 2. downwardly directed throat communicating with said outlet, and a housing communicating with the throat below said outlet, in combination a rotary valve in the housing, said valve having radial vanes that. extend approximately to the center of the valve to present pockets of large capacity, the outer portions of said vanes beingv yieldably hinged, whereby to prevent large piecesof material from damaging the vanes.

HERVEY A. COLVIN. 

